Excellent video as usual Herbert - I do appreciate your loose and more friendly presenting style - folks can get far too serious 👍 With AC there's no actual positive or negative (polarity) to worry about. In fact it's quite handy to select a cable which has no identification as you'll instinctively know where your AC feeds are when looking under the board later. Speaker wire is useful - just ignore the "ridge" moulded into one side - (again) that's for identification if you're wiring speakers. Also, if your layout is somewhere cold (garden shed for example) leave your Twistlock point motors in the house till you're ready to fit them. Cold temperatures can make the lugs brittle especially as it takes a bit of force to twist them into place. 👍 Finally, I do recommend a CDU as the point motors are not designed to receive a constant voltage - in fact they will quickly burn out if they do. If you're very quick when switching the points you might get away with it but it's far from ideal. A CDU takes the constant AC supply to charge up a capacitor. When you switch the points they only use the current stored in the capacitor for a quick "zap" of the motor, The capacitor then recharges from the AC ready for the next go.
I like how you have your baseboard sitting atop a folding trestle table. I currently have my N scale layout baseboard sitting on two fold up trestle tables. My baseboard measures 1.3m x 2.6m and I knew that in order to have point motors installed under the baseboard I would need to sit the baseboard on top of some timber cross beams so I could run cables underneath. Also needed to mount a turntable into a cut hole in the baseboard. I may in fact get enough timber to install legs as well and completely remove the trestle tables. Great video and I really do like these PL-1000 point motors. There's also a matching polarity switch available - TwistLock Twin Microswitch to be used with PL-1000 for option to switch polarities, or to operate signals or panel lights etc. Easy to fit to PL-1000, simply twist and lock onto Twistlock point motor.
The table was the easiest way to keep things portable and easy. I have definitely been looking at the matching polarity switches. Mostly to wire up the frogs. I'm still not sure I really need to do that though, so I haven't cut the frog wires off the points yet.
A nice idea for those too timid to cut a big hole in the baseboard for the Pl-10. BUT if the PL-1000 is screwed directly to the wood I expect it will sound like someone is hitting the board with a hammer when you switch the point. It certainly does if the Pl-10 is fixed to the board instead of clipped to the point itself.
I like how the Peco Twistlock Point motors work! Problem is, I've used a fair chunk of foam as my subroadbed, so it's too thick to use these. Oh well. The whole thing is pretty small, so I can just reach over and flip them anyways.
I had wondered if it was possible to use these with a thick foam base and how that might be done. It seems like it'd be quite difficult. Nothing wrong with manual points anyway.
@@HerbertErpaderp I gotta tell you, I have really enjoyed watching through these and your style and humor. I'll have to check out more than just the model trains.
Thank you for this, I was planning to get 3 of these for my layout I just hadn't got round to doing this, they seem very streight forward. Do you need a CDU for every point motor?
You don't need a CDU for every point motor. They only need power when they're throwing the switch, so you wouldn't be drawing power all the time. the Peco CDU can power at least two machines at once, but you'd usually only be powering one at time. You'd probably need multiple CDUs for a big layout with lots of switch machines.
Excellent video as usual Herbert - I do appreciate your loose and more friendly presenting style - folks can get far too serious 👍
With AC there's no actual positive or negative (polarity) to worry about. In fact it's quite handy to select a cable which has no identification as you'll instinctively know where your AC feeds are when looking under the board later. Speaker wire is useful - just ignore the "ridge" moulded into one side - (again) that's for identification if you're wiring speakers.
Also, if your layout is somewhere cold (garden shed for example) leave your Twistlock point motors in the house till you're ready to fit them. Cold temperatures can make the lugs brittle especially as it takes a bit of force to twist them into place. 👍
Finally, I do recommend a CDU as the point motors are not designed to receive a constant voltage - in fact they will quickly burn out if they do. If you're very quick when switching the points you might get away with it but it's far from ideal. A CDU takes the constant AC supply to charge up a capacitor. When you switch the points they only use the current stored in the capacitor for a quick "zap" of the motor, The capacitor then recharges from the AC ready for the next go.
I like how you have your baseboard sitting atop a folding trestle table. I currently have my N scale layout baseboard sitting on two fold up trestle tables. My baseboard measures 1.3m x 2.6m and I knew that in order to have point motors installed under the baseboard I would need to sit the baseboard on top of some timber cross beams so I could run cables underneath. Also needed to mount a turntable into a cut hole in the baseboard. I may in fact get enough timber to install legs as well and completely remove the trestle tables. Great video and I really do like these PL-1000 point motors. There's also a matching polarity switch available - TwistLock Twin Microswitch to be used with PL-1000 for option to switch polarities, or to operate signals or panel lights etc. Easy to fit to PL-1000, simply twist and lock onto Twistlock point motor.
The table was the easiest way to keep things portable and easy.
I have definitely been looking at the matching polarity switches. Mostly to wire up the frogs. I'm still not sure I really need to do that though, so I haven't cut the frog wires off the points yet.
A nice idea for those too timid to cut a big hole in the baseboard for the Pl-10. BUT if the PL-1000 is screwed directly to the wood I expect it will sound like someone is hitting the board with a hammer when you switch the point. It certainly does if the Pl-10 is fixed to the board instead of clipped to the point itself.
It does make a noise, but more like a very small someone hitting the board with quite a little hammer.
Kajigger fantastic word
It's one of my favourites.
I like how the Peco Twistlock Point motors work! Problem is, I've used a fair chunk of foam as my subroadbed, so it's too thick to use these. Oh well. The whole thing is pretty small, so I can just reach over and flip them anyways.
I had wondered if it was possible to use these with a thick foam base and how that might be done. It seems like it'd be quite difficult. Nothing wrong with manual points anyway.
@@HerbertErpaderp I gotta tell you, I have really enjoyed watching through these and your style and humor. I'll have to check out more than just the model trains.
Thank you for this, I was planning to get 3 of these for my layout I just hadn't got round to doing this, they seem very streight forward. Do you need a CDU for every point motor?
You don't need a CDU for every point motor. They only need power when they're throwing the switch, so you wouldn't be drawing power all the time. the Peco CDU can power at least two machines at once, but you'd usually only be powering one at time.
You'd probably need multiple CDUs for a big layout with lots of switch machines.
The read rings are no polycaps but their look is close enough to it, at least for me. So: POLYCAPS!!! 😍
I purchased one of these point motors and found it a nightmare to install - it ended up in the bin.
Throwback to grandpa